EXCLUSIVE: How eight health workers were rounded up and murdered by Somali military in Gololey

Visits: 2632
(Rating 0.0/5 Stars) Total Votes: 0
0 0
Share via Social Media

EXCLUSIVE: How eight health workers were rounded up and murdered by Somali military in Gololey

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) On Wednesday afternoon, May 27th, around 1.30pm, Muse Mahi, 56-years-old, has finished his midday prayers in the mosque just next to the Mother and Child Health centre (MCH) in Gololey village in the Middle Shabelle region.

Share

Somali National Army during a past operation in the Middle Shabelle region. (Photo: File).

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) On Wednesday afternoon, May 27th, around 1.30pm, Muse Mahi, 56-years-old, has finished his midday prayers in the mosque just next to the Mother and Child Health centre (MCH) in Gololey village in the Middle Shabelle region. Suddenly he saw an armed man with AK-47 wearing Somali military fatigue.

The armed man did not enter the mosque but Mahi could recognise him well.

"I could see him. He is a well known military officer who used to come to the pharmacy to get medications for malaria. He also used to purchase water from the shop," Mahi told Horn Observer in an interview on Monday.

"I did not know what they were going to do here," he adds.

That military officer was part of a group of uniformed officers of Somali National Army (SNA) stationed in Rahoy village, about 1km north of Gololey under the command of Iman Holog and Abukar Aw- Ali Hirane (known as Abukar Bonow). The officers came on a minibus that left after dropping them.

The military men who were masked raided the village's MCH run by the local non-governmental organisation called Zamzam Foundation and rounded up all seven health workers on duty. They were: Mohamed Omar Bore, 24; Abukar Muse Mahi, 30; Nur Haji Mohamed Omar, 25; Ali Ahmadey Ali Abukar, 22; Yusuf Ayub Abdulle, 59; Abdullahi Mohamed Huti Filfil, 30; Abdirisak Mohamed Qobey, 19 and Abdiaziz Abdullahi, 25. All were told to walk ahead of the armed men to the nearby bush. Abukar Muse Mahi, a 30-years-old doctor and son of Mahi was among the seven.

"When I left the mosque, I saw women crying who said the military raided the health centre and looted the mobile phones of the health workers before abducting them," Mahi told Horn Observer.

On their way to the bush, the armed men passed through the chemist shop where they also abducted Nur Haji Mohamed Omar (popularly known as Nur Gaas), a 25-years-old pharmacist and laboratory technician, according to Abdisalan Haji Mohamed, 38-years-old and elder brother of Nur.

"I only returned back to Gololey that afternoon because of fear that the military will attack the village. There was a bomb attack the day before [Tuesday May 26th] by al-Shabaab against the military," Abdisalan who told Horn Observer that he was arrested and released on April 24 in Jowhar, by the military has said during in an exclusive interview "We were in fear that the army will retaliate us. On several occasions, the military commanders vowed that they will kill Gololey residents if al-Shabaab dares to plant a bomb near the village."

Around 3.pm local time on Wednesday, the villagers in Gololey heard gunshots that seemed to be of a point-blank range but could not identify who was shooting and why, according to four residents including two family members of the victims interviewed by Horn Observer.

All were shot on the head at a point blank range.

"We did not know they were executing our boys and they did it," Abdisalan says.

-ROADSIDE BOMB ON SNA-

On Tuesday May 26th, SNA military convoy was targeted with a roadside bomb killing at least eight soldiers and three wounded, according to news media and officers in Balcad, which Gololey falls under its jurisdiction.

Balcad police commissioner, Hussein Moalim has confirmed to Horn Observer that on Thursday morning [May 28th] elders from Gololey reported to him that eight young men were arrested by the military on Wednesday and that he promised to the elders that he would follow up the matter.

Both Abdisalan and Mahi were among the elders who reported the incident to the Balcad police commissioner. They said, the police chief sent a man on a motorbike to Rahoy village to ask for the release of the eight because he believed the military detained the health workers there.

"The police commander in Balcad promised that our boys will be freed. He said he believed that they were arrested by the military unit in Rahoy village in connection to the bomb attack by al-Shabaab," Mahi told Horn Observer.

The man sent by the police chief in Balcad has refused to be interviewed by Horn Observer due to the sensitivity of the matter. Also Balcad police chief, Hussein Moalim declined to provide further details on the man he sent as "a messenger" to the military holding the health workers.

But according to Omar Bore Osman, 50-years-old father of murdered 24-years-old pharmacist, Mohamed Omar Bore, has told Horn Observer that the man sent by the police commissioner returned helplessly after the military commander, Iman Holog had refused to allow the man to enter the camp so he returned back without delivering the message from the police commissioner in Balcad.

That was not the end. Village elders and a representative from Zamzam Foundation contacted SNA sergeant Abukar Bonow who is based in Garsale camp, approximately 60km from Gololey.

"Officer Bonow told us that there was a military operation in the area and with exasperated expression refused to help release of the boys, because he was very annoyed that soldiers were killed in the al-Shabaab bomb blast in the village," a representative from Zamzam Foundation told Horn Observer on anonymity condition as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

-ANGER AND PROTEST-

On Thursday May 28th, the eight bodies were found in the bush near Gololey by the village residents. All were identified and suddenly transported to Mogadishu for autopsy.

Anger grew locally in Gololey as residents and health workers in Balcad town marched to the streets on Friday demanding a thorough and credible investigation into the killing of the eight men. They said the militant group al-Shabaab would have claimed the killing should they have carried it. Also the lawmaker Abdukadir Arabow, whose constituency falls within Balcad township has called for "an independent investigation" which is not influenced by the Federal Government.

"Killers can not arrest themselves. We need independent investigation to arrest the perpetrators urgently," he said as the bodies of the eight executed men were brought at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Mogadishu on Thursday night.

The Federal Ministry of information, through a statement released on Thursday evening, condemned the murder of the eight health workers and called for investigations. On May 31 press conference in Adado town, Chief of Somali national army, General Odawa Yusuf Rage, denied that the officers responsible for the killing were from SNA and did not blame it on al-Shabaab.

(HORN OBSERVER)